First American Bank Complaint - Overdraft Fee Has To Be Illegal!

HOBBS, NEW MEXICO -- OK, this isn't my account that this happened to, but I saw the charges and can't believe it can be legal! If it was my account, I would be speaking to a lawyer!

Here's what happened. My company charged a client's checking account an incorrect amount. This ended up causing overdraft fees of almost $80.00 for one overdraft! Our client has about $200.00 in her account. My company charged her $600.00, which put her in the negative by $400.00. Then (all in the same day) two charges came out of her account together totaling less than $40.00. Then the $600.00 my company charged her was sent as an NSF, which put her account positive again, but they still charged her for the NSF and for two overdraft.

Now, in case you don't know, NSF means non-sufficient funds. In other words, it amounts to a bounced check. Overdraft is when the bank pays a check for you and puts your account in the negative to cover the check. This bank charged her overdraft fees when she should never have been over on her account! The transaction should have been sent back NSF with a single fee. How can a bank charge both overdraft and NSF? They are two very different things!

I fully believe that a class action lawsuit should be filed. As I said before, if this was my account, I would be speaking to a lawyer right now!

I think that you are playing semantics here. An overdraft is a check written OVER the given balance on the account which in turn means that due to the insufficient funds the check will bounce unless you have overdraft protection, right? Some banks will cover the check but they are doing more harm than good in my opinion.
Sounds like your company ought to be paying for these overdrafts and hauled into court.

Posted by BEJ on 2009-04-29:

The company who caused the error in the first place should cover all fees for the client.

Posted by Anonymous on 2009-04-29:

Exactly!!

Posted by kahlan2000 on 2009-04-30:

We did cover all the costs! My issue is that the charges should never have been anywhere near that much to begin with.

Posted by kahlan2000 on 2009-04-30:

If the person doesn't have overdraft protection (which is this case she didn't) then she shouldn't have been charged for overdrafts period. I just don't see how you can put an account in overdraft, charge overdraft fees, then return the item that put the account in overdraft in the first place and charge an NSF fee on top of that!

Posted by SK on 2012-02-07:

First AM Bank are thieves, plain and simple! They've stolen money from me and I've left the b------s!